Showing results by narrator "Joe Hempel" in All Categories

The peace and calm of Hampton Cove is brutally disturbed when celebrity chef Niklaus Skad, famous for his show Kitchen Disasters, is found cooked in his own oven. The chef wasn’t a well-liked man, and there are plenty of suspects to go around. Odelia Poole, Hampton Cove Gazette reporter and civilian consultant to the police department, teams up with Detective Chase Kingsley to catch the killer, but soon finds this proves a lot harder than she thought. Max, Odelia’s blorange tabby, would love to help out, but is faced with a cat emergency when Odelia takes in a new stray.

A New Dark Leader Has Emerged... Following Maurice's near-assassination and the overthrow of the American Vampire Council, Reginald, Maurice, and Nikki have fled to Luxembourg, where they've taken refuge under the protection of Karl Stromm and the EU Council. Things in America have continued towards chaos with no end in sight — until a coup shakes the world and a new American leader arrives with promises to restore order and derail the imminent human-vampire war. But things are not as they seem. A dangerous, genocidal faction has arisen to upset the fragile balance.

What the New Order Seeks, Reginald Must Find... The new vampire president and his psychotic right-hand man have been playing a dangerous game with the humans over the past six months. In the public eye, the two races appear to be at peace ... but the situation below the surface is hot enough to boil. And while the untrusting humans mass their defenses, vampire armies have been building to match them — with plans to exterminate the planet's current inhabitants, saving only a handful of blood slaves.

Blorange tabby Max and ragamuffin Dooley are on the case again. This time a world-famous reality star has been found murdered in her own bed, and it looks like the crime just might be terror-related. The Kenspeckles, stars of the well-known reality show Keeping Up with the Kenspeckles, are in town to film a new season of their show, so the case soon turns into a complete media circus, with the Kenspeckles insisting the entire investigation is filmed for their show.

The Era of Nighttime Has Begun... Forty years have passed since the end of the vampire/human war. Vampires have taken over the planet and have settled in, making themselves comfortable in the infrastructure their predecessors built, with just a few adjustments to ensure a permanent night. Humans still exist, tightly controlled, because the alpha species needs to eat. But even after four decades of peace, Reginald can't shake his conviction that the war never really ended — that the archive he still holds in his blood warns of an ominous change on the horizon.

When famous eighties pop star John Paul George is found floating facedown in his pool, Hampton Cove’s premier sleuthing tabby Max and his feline friends are on the case. Soon they’re chasing leads and following clues, helping their human Odelia Poole, reporter for the Hampton Cove Gazette, solve the murder. Meanwhile, new cop in town Chase Kingsley has his own problems to deal with. An old scandal threatens to get him kicked off the force.

Angels and Demons, Myths and Legends... It's been six months since Reginald Baskin became a vampire too fat to live happily with the beautiful undead — six months in which Reginald and his two-thousand-year-old maker Maurice have learned that safety does not come with power. These days, Maurice is Deacon of the Vampire Nation, but plenty beneath Maurice are still plotting to depose him … or dispose of him. But when a new and ancient threat rears its head, the Nation faces extinction and the truest of deaths — and Reginald, Maurice, and Nikki might be the only vampires who can stop it.

At twenty-six, Dom Contreras has already spent a decade jobbing through the minor leagues of professional wrestling as Hack Barlow, a three-hundred-pound axe-swinging lumberjack. As his body breaks down and his star power fades, he must invent a new gimmick before he loses the only job he's ever known.

The dark side of the porn industry has bred a monster with a penchant for recreating "classic" scenes. And Larry isn't the first actor The Doll has kidnapped to make his twisted "film".

Pets are loyal, loving, supportive companions. They can be trained to help us, care for us, support us. Some humans do not deserve their pets. One animal doctor has decided to give them what they deserve.

Gaige Penrod yearns for the light of musical greatness. A self-taught metal guitarist with a dream of being the greatest, he finds himself drawn to a concert celebrating an eclipse, where he is overcome by an otherworldly presence that changes him forever.

Step into the chilling embrace of fear with Dead Things in Dark Places: Season 2, another haunting collection from the maestro of the macabre, David Viergutz. Known for his darkly captivating tales, Viergutz once again lures you into a sinister anthology where terror knows no bounds. Brace yourself as you unravel the mystery of an orphan whose shadow harbors a sinister secret, or traverse the eerie streets of a town shrouded in an impenetrable veil of mist, where the boundary between reality and nightmare blurs.

No one ever said being a werewolf was easy. Take Delia, for instance. She’s spent much of her life fighting against her own nature, plagued by nightmares of childhood trauma, and trying to find her place in the world. Many werewolves are just like her: ostracized by their families, forced to live alone and in secret as they await those nights when the Change overtakes them.

Surviving a car crash was just the beginning. Now, you are David, a newly orphaned teen trapped in Grandma’s isolated cottage in the Virginia mountains—and something in the house wants you dead.

The Cult of Abaddon has been driven from Castle Ravenclaw, but it’s far from finished. Daisuke Kugo must hunt down the survivors, especially their terrifying leader, The Devil Man. He’s in possession of a demon prison and desperate to find a way to open it.

Pierce's team encounters an unlikely threat. The challenges ahead of them will test their physical and mental limits. James and his group find out that the cathedral they considered sanctuary is not so safe after all. Daniel makes a discovery that has him questioning everything he's known his entire life. As the days go by, Krista loses hope that her husband will ever come back. Heather and her sister are still alive, but the infected are making it difficult to find a way out. With every minute they spend in the city, their likelihood of survival dwindles.

As the survivors race to find a way out of the city, they encounter unexpected challenges and startling revelations that shatter their understanding of the situation. There's more to this outbreak than the government let on, and it's far deadlier than anyone ever could have anticipated. In their desperate attempt to stay alive, the survivors are forced to make difficult decisions that will put their humanity and morality to the test. Trapped in their predicaments, they are faced with a terrible realization. The infected aren't the only threat.

In the sweltering summer of 1977, the Bronx is burning—but not all fires are created equal. Ezra Levine, a bodega night clerk with a hidden talent for earth magic, prefers to keep his head down and his powers under wraps. But when an ancient golem crumbles before his eyes and an otherworldly inferno threatens to consume his beloved borough, Ezra is thrust into a shadowy world of supernatural politics and age-old conflicts.

It's the ultimate haunted house challenge. A crumbling stone mansion nestled in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, it may be the best-kept secret in Europe—a little-known attraction featuring nine escape rooms to explore, nine puzzles to solve, and a large cash prize for anyone who makes it to the end. There's just one catch: no one makes it to the end of The No-End House . . . When Joe Hadfield hears about the house from a pair of backpackers, he's intrigued but not interested. He's trying to escape a nightmare of his own.

When James witnesses a brutal killing outside his home, he must choose between seeking help or waiting for rescue in a city overrun by the infected. Trapped in his lab as the city descends into chaos, scientist Daniel waits for the infected surrounding the building to disperse. When they refuse to budge even days later, he realizes he's going to be stuck there for a long time.